The Great Merestone medieval boundary marker on Finlow Hill, 245m east of Mottram House
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1020194
- Date first listed:
- 20-Jul-2001
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2000-05-29
- Reference:
- IOE01/01129/03
- Rights:
- © John Boothroyd. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1020194
- Date first listed:
- 20-Jul-2001
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Cheshire East (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Over Alderley
- National Grid Reference:
- SJ 86135 76774
Reasons for Designation
The Great Merestone medieval boundary marker on Finlow Hill, 245m east of Mottram House, appears on a description of the parish and estate boundaries of the area of Alderley Edge dated 1598. The stone is known locally as the `Great Merestone' and has attracted much attention as a semi-sacred object. Together with two other markers on the Edge they constitute an uncommon survival of medieval boundaries and provide important evidence of the extent of the medieval parochial and estate landholdings. Although the site is not open to the public, the stone is visible from the road from Finlow Hill Lane to Bradford Lodge, and so the monument provides an educational resource for the numerous visitors to this area.
Details
The monument includes a large boulder, half buried in a field on Finlow Hill. It lies on the former medieval boundary between the parishes of Nether Alderley and Over Alderley, but later agricultural work has removed the bank on which it must have stood. This stone is referred to locally as the `Great Merestone' and is one of a number mentioned in a description of a perambulation of the parish and estate boundaries of May 1598. The stone is a roughly squared boulder about 1.30m in diameter and made of a fine-grained sandstone, possibly a glacial erratic. It stands 0.40m above the present ground level. On the top surface is a damaged carved cross with the arms about 0.30m across.
MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 33862
- Legacy System:
- RSM
Sources
Other
Norbury, Mrs , 2000,
Manchester Museum and National Trust Survey, (1998)
Legal
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 04-Jun-2026 at 05:46:11.
Download a full scale map (PDF)© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2026. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
End of official list entry